The Injured Athletes Club
We’re sorry you’re here, but we’re glad you’re with us! If you’re lucky enough to call yourself an athlete, chances are you’ve been injured. One of the biggest challenges of injury is facing recovery alone. Now, you don’t have to. Mental skills coach Carrie Jackson and journalist Cindy Kuzma interview athletes about how they've coped with sports injuries and come out stronger on the other side. And, Carrie shares some of the mental skills and drills she teaches injured athletes—tools you can use to stay positive and resilient during your recovery. Not only can these strategies help you bounce back stronger from injury, you can use them to rebound from any setback in your sport—or in life. DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational & informational use only and & does not constitute medical advice. Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your health-care professional because of something you may have heard in an episode of this podcast. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult with a qualified medical professional for proper evaluation & treatment. Guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experiences, and conclusions, and The Injured Athletes Club podcast hosts nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular treatment option discussed in the episodes of this podcast and are not responsible for any actions or inactions of listeners based on the information presented. The use of any information provided is solely at your own risk.
Episodes
“ How do I deal with expectations around timelines?”
—Every injured athlete, ever
In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries. And for our season finale, she tackles an issue that’s come up from more than one person: how to manage when recovery takes longer than you’d lik...
“ Surgeries one through three, there is still this fear around weight gain and therefore restriction. And I think part of me wants to know, is that a major factor in why I didn't heal well? I'm not going to dwell on that or guilt-trip myself over it; it's in the past. But it was also an opportunity for surgeries four and onward, to say: ‘Let's take a different approach. Let's nourish to heal. Let's not feed to skate b...
“ I’ve unfortunately faced a series of surgeries and setbacks over the last few years. While I feel like I have a supportive group of friends, I don’t feel like my primary coach has been that understanding of the mental toll that this has taken on me or how to navigate a game plan through my recovery, even though she’s successfully done that in the past with me as injuries have come up. She doesn’t feel approachable t...
“ It really helped me as a coach to be able to look at my athletes and remind them, it doesn't have to be about a PR, doesn't have to be about the best day you wanted, but it can be—if you're healthy—about the best day you have that day. And that can be celebrated, that can be fun, even if it isn't the outcome you would've ideally written in your book.”
Becki Spellman has had a long, successful career in...
“With overuse injuries especially, how do you help injured athletes recognize what to take ownership for, and what was out of their control? For example, one's weightlifting form may have led them to injury. Shame and guilt can be common emotions here, which are not helpful to our recovery, but how do we recognize what causal factors to take ownership of in a healthy way?”
—Clark
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“ That's how I learn life. I look at it, I visualize myself doing it, and then I execute. And if it doesn't feel right, I can feel it. I can see it, almost like a third person's view. That's the way I've approached life; that's the way I've been able to really reel in on what I'm good at and what I'm not good at.”
Ryan Medrano has faced his share of challenges—he was born with mild cerebral ...
“ How do you stay patient when the doctor says you’re doing too much? Mentally I get so down.”
—Kathy
In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries.
This week, she empathizes with Kathy’s conundrum—most injured athletes aren’t happy with the pace of their re...
”What went through my mind—I was 19 at the time, my birthday was the prior month—was, oh my goodness, is my life over in terms of being able to live my dream? Because hockey, for me, wasn't just a sport. It was a gateway to do better in all facets of life.”
Tom Smith doesn’t like the word “impossible.” After all, time after time, he’s beaten the odds. After a paralyzing spinal cord injury during a hocke...
“ When you're injured and beginning to rejoin group rides/workouts, how do you let other riders know you're not at 100%? I'm thinking specifically of gravel and mountain biking. I have trouble clipping out quickly, and am currently overly cautious. I want to ride in the very back, but sometimes there are other people ALSO trying to ride in the back. I know people don't want/need to hear my ‘woe is me' injury story, but...
“ When you give yourself permission to explore your identity, you will start to realize that being an athlete is an important part of who you are, but it is not all that you are. When you develop other areas of your identity, it can sometimes open up your performance in ways that were never available to you before.”
As we discuss frequently in The Injured Athletes Club, injury brings a rollercoaster of e...
“Besides feed the athlete/feed the monster, are there other ways to reframe and build confidence with that day-to-day overwhelm in month 3 and beyond?”
Allison
In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries.
This week, listener Allison wants advice on self-talk...
“ I woke up in the hospital and told everybody that this isn't gonna define me. I'm going to be playing lacrosse again. But there was always that what-if in the back of my head; I didn't really know if it would be possible. Having amputees sit across from me and hearing everything that they've been through … they were telling me that I'd be able to live an active lifestyle. I would be able to do whatever I wanted to w...
“ Just after recovering from being hit by a truck over the summer and breaking a bunch of bones, I got to start running again only to slam my ankle into a table and now I can’t even walk. It’s possibly just a bone bruise but the pain is radiating through my entire leg and I’m so angry this happened to me just after I got better.
Everything is just fifty thousand times worse. I don’t get along with those ...
“ The biggest change that I've had to make in myself is, you don't always have to be progressing. I feel like there's this huge push to be able to run faster, run farther, lift heavier, just do more all the time. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way to reap all the benefits of health and fitness that come along with cardio and with strength training.”
Physical therapist and strength coach Dr. ...
“How can I cope with treadmill anxiety? Coming off of a mild ankle fracture, my first few weeks I was back up to speed. Lately, as soon as I go anywhere over a jog, I feel panicky, like I'm going to fall and have to slow down. I feel relatively sure it is all mental—but I’m wondering if you have any tips.”
—Jennifer
In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answ...
"Actionable goals build. It's a mountain—recovery is a mountain. Think about the stops on that mountain that you need to make to get to the top.”
Millie Paladino had a successful, relatively injury-free collegiate career in running at West Virginia University and then Providence College, where she ran distances from 800 meters to 3,000 meters and was an all-American in the mile.
“ I tore my ACL last April; it’s been very challenging. Do you have any ideas on how to make the recovery process fun? Also, why do I feel so lost and confused without my sport—what should I do with this feeling?
—Ava
In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries.
“ I don't really want to be who I was before I was injured. In a lot of ways, I'm thankful to a place that just completely broke me, just brought me to some really low points. That's when I was able to grasp my faith or what it was, which is my personal worth. It has absolutely nothing to do with a soccer field or anything of the sort. Just learning that my worth and my fulfillment comes solely through my faith has bee...
“ I have had the worst luck in the last two years. I had a knee replacement in April 2022 for a left knee that had at least 6 scopes over a 10-year + period and it was finally ready to be redone. At last, I would be pain-free. I worked extremely hard to rehab so I could get back on my mountain bike and on the ice. I did, eventually, but with a constant nagging pain. It turns out I had a fungal infection in the joint fr...
“ Anybody I've met since I got hurt, I feel like they don't know me and that they can't know me. For people that I've become really close to since I got hurt—it almost hurts me to know that this person won't actually ever know who I am or who I was. They're meeting an entirely different person … there's a before and after, and a massive wall that separates them.”
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